Index Archive

11 September 2016

India NITI Aayog fails to define an official poverty line
In Past Time to time planning commission of India tried to define the poverty line and gave some figures.

The World Bank reckons more than 270 million Indians live on less than $2 a day.

Year 2011 –
a panel led by Suresh Tendulkar estimated the number of poor in India at 21.9% of the population.

The controversy over the low threshold income level forced the then UPA government to set up another expert panel headed by former RBI Governor C Rangarajan.
That committee pegged the threshold at levels which showed 29.5%

Now Hindustan times reported that After a year and half of work, a 16-member task force headed by NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya has failed to reach a consensus and suggested to the government that another panel of specialists be asked to do the job.

HT reported that in its draft report, the Panagariya panel had reportedly favored the Tendulkar poverty line. It refrained from suggesting its own threshold in the final report.

“The expert group should have taken a view. It can’t just say that there is a lack of consensus. It’s ridiculous,” Abhijit Sen, eminent economist and former Planning Commission member, told Hindustan Times.

Just think why niti aayog did not take its view?
Fear of whom, or do you think someone told them your views are not accepted don’t reveal them, we will appoint new panel you maintain silence